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Hi everyone! This seems to be a great forum for some realistic information about the Alamogodo area. We are seriously considering moving there but have never visited as our trips have always kept us on I25 until we turned either west or east on I10 at Las Cruces. We are in Colorado Springs CO where I was born and have lived most of my life. Also lived in San Diego, LA & Miami (hence the turns at Las Cruces!) but that was many, many years ago when those places weren't too bad to live in back then. C. Springs here had always been a pretty slow, almost boring place to grow up in and live but during the past 15 years its become a zoo with a huge influx of people escaping California and a lot of other areas. Housing prices have skyrocketed but oddly enough the wages haven't (gee...go figure huh?). Crime is getting ridiculous, gangs stuff in the elementary schools etc.. Plus, having spent 50+ winters here I'm a little burnt out on snow and cold even though this last winter hardly existed.
At any rate we are willing to move tomorrow but not quite to that financial point yet. I could keep my present job for another 3 years, start collecting Social Security & have an "extra" grand a month but we'd love to move sooner. Another year and our bills are totally gone but we will both have to work when we get there so I'm wondering how the job situation is there. I've been managing a mobile home park (a nice one too!) for the past 10 years but spent most of my life in the printing business & doing artwork (paintings) for a few clients here and there. What I've learned with the mobile homes I think would fair me pretty well if I applied at Lowes or Home Depot but with jobs hard to come by I would think that those type positions are filled already. I did speak to a lady there in Alamogordo utilities department once (comparing rates with here...) and I asked her about jobs. I had been checking the Alamogordo newspaper job listings on their webpage and it never seems like a whole lot. She told me "there's plenty of jobs but people just aren't willing to work!" I think she was venting some frustration of some type but then I see how people are here when it comes to honest work and she may be absolutely right! We'd sure welcome any & all opinions from the residents there as to what we might expect.
We've been checking realtor sites and we should be able to find a decent place in our price range of $60 to maybe $90,000. From what we've read on previous posts I'd guess that Boles Acres and other areas south are not the best prospective areas (?).
I do apologise for such a long post but we will sincerely appreciate any & all info anyone cares to share with us.
Regards, Patrick & Linda

Hi everyone! This seems to be a great forum for some realistic information about the Alamogodo area. We are seriously considering moving there but have never visited as our trips have always kept us on I25 until we turned either west or east on I10 at Las Cruces. We are in Colorado Springs CO where I was born and have lived most of my life. Also lived in San Diego, LA & Miami (hence the turns at Las Cruces!) but that was many, many years ago when those places weren't too bad to live in back then. C. Springs here had always been a pretty slow, almost boring place to grow up in and live but during the past 15 years its become a zoo with a huge influx of people escaping California and a lot of other areas. Housing prices have skyrocketed but oddly enough the wages haven't (gee...go figure huh?). Crime is getting ridiculous, gangs stuff in the elementary schools etc.. Plus, having spent 50+ winters here I'm a little burnt out on snow and cold even though this last winter hardly existed.
At any rate we are willing to move tomorrow but not quite to that financial point yet. I could keep my present job for another 3 years, start collecting Social Security & have an "extra" grand a month but we'd love to move sooner. Another year and our bills are totally gone but we will both have to work when we get there so I'm wondering how the job situation is there. I've been managing a mobile home park (a nice one too!) for the past 10 years but spent most of my life in the printing business & doing artwork (paintings) for a few clients here and there. What I've learned with the mobile homes I think would fair me pretty well if I applied at Lowes or Home Depot but with jobs hard to come by I would think that those type positions are filled already. I did speak to a lady there in Alamogordo utilities department once (comparing rates with here...) and I asked her about jobs. I had been checking the Alamogordo newspaper job listings on their webpage and it never seems like a whole lot. She told me "there's plenty of jobs but people just aren't willing to work!" I think she was venting some frustration of some type but then I see how people are here when it comes to honest work and she may be absolutely right! We'd sure welcome any & all opinions from the residents there as to what we might expect.
We've been checking realtor sites and we should be able to find a decent place in our price range of $60 to maybe $90,000. From what we've read on previous posts I'd guess that Boles Acres and other areas south are not the best prospective areas (?).
I do apologise for such a long post but we will sincerely appreciate any & all info anyone cares to share with us.
Regards, Patrick & Linda

No apologies needed Patrick and Linda and welcome !!

Keep in mind Alamogordo is only around 35,000 people so there's not alot of optiions for employment although many start their own business. However we do have an Holloman AFB which is also expanding with the F-22's coming in and the base provides civilian employment. There are Home Depot and Lowes improvement store's as well as other hardware and lumber stores. There is a thriving art community in La Luz 5 minutes north and Tularosa about 15 minutes north. Also there'a a large retiree population which is always looking for people with handyman skills etc.

I really recommend that you drop down for a visit to see if the city and the area are what your looking for as some really like it and others do not. Most from Colorado who visit take U.S. 285 at Santa Fe/El Dorado down to U.S.54 then all the way down to save time and distance instead of taking I-25 then across the basin.

As for snow i think we had one day of snow this year and yesterday was close to 80 degrees. We do have lots of mountain recreation up and all around the Sacramento mountain range i.e. Camping, Cabins, Mountain Streams and Lakes, Indian Casino's, Horce Racing, and White sands National Monument etc..

I'm about an hour and a half from Alamogordo
(In the mountains) and Alamo is the place we go for groceries and whatever else because it's the closest town.
I was raised in Colo. Spgs. in the 70's. Went to Palmer High.
Anyway, the best thing for you to do other than get all our responses is to come down for a visit.
Weather wise, it's warmer here in the summer and also a lot warmer in the winter compared to the Springs if weather concerns you.
Scenery is great. Surrounded by mountains.
I'm thinking that you wouldn't have a problem getting a job at Home Depot or Lowes. The last time I was in them was a couple of months ago and one of them was advertising for help.
Size wise, it's alot smaller than the Springs which makes it nice for people that want to retire and get out of the city.
There's a few more people on this board like Chilegal and Cathy that should pop on soon. Along with 6/3, they can answer about any question you have.

I see there's gonna be alot of construction at White Sands Missile Range and also Holloman AFB this year. Also currently there's 7 Raptors and their crews at Holloman as that will eventually swell to 40 and all their support crews which will be good for alamo.

Keep in mind Alamogordo is only around 35,000 people so there's not alot of optiions for employment although many start their own business. However we do have an Holloman AFB which is also expanding with the F-22's coming in and the base provides civilian employment. There are Home Depot and Lowes improvement store's as well as other hardware and lumber stores. There is a thriving art community in La Luz 5 minutes north and Tularosa about 15 minutes north. Also there'a a large retiree population which is always looking for people with handyman skills etc.

I really recommend that you drop down for a visit to see if the city and the area are what your looking for as some really like it and others do not. Most from Colorado who visit take U.S. 285 at Santa Fe/El Dorado down to U.S.54 then all the way down to save time and distance instead of taking I-25 then across the basin.

As for snow i think we had one day of snow this year and yesterday was close to 80 degrees. We do have lots of mountain recreation up and all around the Sacramento mountain range i.e. Camping, Cabins, Mountain Streams and Lakes, Indian Casino's, Horce Racing, and White sands National Monument etc..

Anything else just ask and one of us from Alamo will assist you out.

6/3

Thanks 6/3. We've actually been looking at Alamogordo for more than 10 years! Which is good to us because it hasn't seemed to haved changed much during that time period. I'm going to try to make a run down there this summer so that I can see some of the neighborhoods in person, talk to some realtors and mortgage folks, etc.. If our plans work out we'll be able to go for a good period of time without jobs once we get there so I'm sure we'll be able to get settled into something. What I really need to do is decide on some ideas I've had for paintings, get my rear in gear and get enough done for some type of book to be published so we wouldn't have to rely on the local economy for income. Even here the only time we made really good money is when we had a specialised printing business producing the numbers runners wear in marathon & road races worldwide.
The one still really nice thing about "here" is that there are a lot of beautiful old Victorian homes downtown with some smaller cottages in the surrounding neighborhoods. So far I haven't found anything Victorian style on the realtors listings for Alamogordo but then we have found a lot of very attractive adobe style homes which we also like. Of course being on a somewhat restrictive budget, beggars can't be choosers etc., we are also looking at mobile homes, some with a bit of property even. There's one lsited up by La Luz that looks very nice and well cared for and has almost 4 acres with it. Out of our reach at the moment but we've seen many, many nice homes like it so we're sure we'll be able to find just the right place when we are ready. We think we'd like to be "out in the country" a bit which down there seems to be only 5 to 10 miles! Up here its 10 miles just through town to get from where we live to the major car dealers in Motor City & neither they or us are in the outskirts of town! Its a good 20 miles across and north & south here before you can start seeing any open country.
At any rate we want to thank you very much for your replies and we will definitely come back to the forum as we have more questions and get closer to being able to move.
Pat & Linda

I'm about an hour and a half from Alamogordo
(In the mountains) and Alamo is the place we go for groceries and whatever else because it's the closest town.
I was raised in Colo. Spgs. in the 70's. Went to Palmer High.
Anyway, the best thing for you to do other than get all our responses is to come down for a visit.
Weather wise, it's warmer here in the summer and also a lot warmer in the winter compared to the Springs if weather concerns you.
Scenery is great. Surrounded by mountains.
I'm thinking that you wouldn't have a problem getting a job at Home Depot or Lowes. The last time I was in them was a couple of months ago and one of them was advertising for help.
Size wise, it's alot smaller than the Springs which makes it nice for people that want to retire and get out of the city.
There's a few more people on this board like Chilegal and Cathy that should pop on soon. Along with 6/3, they can answer about any question you have.

Hi Song in the Wind! I went to Wasson for less than a year back in '66, dropped out to help my parents in their printing business & my wife went to Widefield High & graduated in '70. have you been back up here in the last 15 years? If you haven't you wouldn't recognise the place! Downtown on Tejon street they've added some beautiful sidewalks, planters, etc. but the whole street is nothing but bars from Colorado up to Acacia Park. The suburbs have gone in all directions with homes sitting up to the borders of The Garden of The Gods (& above in the foothills!), all the way out to Black Forest & way east past Powers Blvd.. Its solid homes & business' both north and south from Fountain and Widefield up to Castle Rock. Traffic like you wouldn't believe. Woodland Park has a Home Depot & Walmart even.
Gotta have mountains so Alamogordo has looked great from what we've seen. Cloudcroft reminds me of Woodland Park back in the 50s! Should things start going really well for us (like hitting the lotto ...) I think we'd look for a winter place in town and a nice retreat up in the mountains for the summer heat. The whole area looks very inviting as the Springs has really become a rat race...shootings every other night etc.. Not the old friendly place it was back in the 70s, 80s or even 90s. Just too many people...
Thanks for you reply. I am going to try to get down there sometime this year just to scout things out a bit at the very least. If there's anything around town here that you'd like pics of or if you'd like to see whats changed please let us know & we'll send you some photos. Palmer made a new entry hall it looks like on the east side last year, other than that, 'still looks the same. And yup...General Palmer still sits in the intersection...

Gotta have mountains so Alamogordo has looked great from what we've seen.

The Sacramentos are indeed Alamogordo's crowning glory, along with the adjacent canyons all in the area. I never get tired of seeing them every morning when I go out to get my paper. The San Andres are pretty, too, but not nearly as close!

The last time I was in the Springs was 2 years ago. It's definately gotten larger and getting closer to Denver.
Back in the 70's, my parents owned some land in Woodland Park and at that time, it was a bunch of land with a few people here and there building and I remember an ice cream place.
When we went this past time, we stayed in Manitou. I've always liked the place. Hippyish,laidback. It's changed some but not much. We walked to the Garden of the Gods from where we were staying in Manitou and it's grown up there too.
I guess things have to change.
I miss Shakey's Pizza.......
You'll like Alamo and if you all wanted to really really live in the boonies, come to Timberon.
Actually, Timberon is not as far from Alamo as you may think. Sure, it's an 1 1/2 but the drive is beautiful and it doesn't seem that long.
Pricewise, you may want to stay away from Cloudcroft and Ruidoso. Nice places to visit but expensive to live there.

Thanks 6/3. We've actually been looking at Alamogordo for more than 10 years! Which is good to us because it hasn't seemed to haved changed much during that time period. I'm going to try to make a run down there this summer so that I can see some of the neighborhoods in person, talk to some realtors and mortgage folks, etc.. If our plans work out we'll be able to go for a good period of time without jobs once we get there so I'm sure we'll be able to get settled into something. What I really need to do is decide on some ideas I've had for paintings, get my rear in gear and get enough done for some type of book to be published so we wouldn't have to rely on the local economy for income. Even here the only time we made really good money is when we had a specialised printing business producing the numbers runners wear in marathon & road races worldwide.
The one still really nice thing about "here" is that there are a lot of beautiful old Victorian homes downtown with some smaller cottages in the surrounding neighborhoods. So far I haven't found anything Victorian style on the realtors listings for Alamogordo but then we have found a lot of very attractive adobe style homes which we also like. Of course being on a somewhat restrictive budget, beggars can't be choosers etc., we are also looking at mobile homes, some with a bit of property even. There's one lsited up by La Luz that looks very nice and well cared for and has almost 4 acres with it. Out of our reach at the moment but we've seen many, many nice homes like it so we're sure we'll be able to find just the right place when we are ready. We think we'd like to be "out in the country" a bit which down there seems to be only 5 to 10 miles! Up here its 10 miles just through town to get from where we live to the major car dealers in Motor City & neither they or us are in the outskirts of town! Its a good 20 miles across and north & south here before you can start seeing any open country.
At any rate we want to thank you very much for your replies and we will definitely come back to the forum as we have more questions and get closer to being able to move.
Pat & Linda

Pat and Linda......also look into south Alamogordo if your looking for a few acres of land as you might find some good prices out there between Alamogordo and Oliver Lee State Park.

Think of Tularosa also, We have friends that live there and really like it. And like Song said even think of Timberon.. at least check it out when you come down. We would love to have another artist in our burg..

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